22 years in, the Mission: Impossible franchise may have reached peak entertainment. The premise is a series standard and therefore delightfully familiar, but the stakes facing Hunt and co. are raised at a breakneck pace, with double-crosses and death-defying chase scenes coming thick and fast. The antics should be ridiculous – somehow they manage to out-do and out-stunt previous installments – but full commitment of cast members old and new(special mention to Simon Pegg and Angela Bassett), and the creative team (helmed by Rogue Nation’s Christopher McQuarrie), keep viewers hooked to the screen with a balance of apocalyptic threat and tongue-in-cheek levity.

Fallout defies description. The latest entry in Hollywood’s most competently-made, dependable action franchise, expectations were solid but not buoyant. Going in, a healthy pinch of salt was probably recommended to stave off the early rave reviews. But what unfolds before you over two-plus hours is something truly transcendent and increasingly elusive – true, pure cinematic thrills. With bathroom punch-ups, helicopter chases, Southbank parkour and head-spinning halo jumps, Fallout constantly stretches to one-up itself and consistently succeeds. Coherent plot be damned, the psychotic Cruise and his team of enablers have conspired here to create a true masterpiece.

The first director to return to the series, Christopher McQuarrie seems hellbent on outdoing himself. The plot at its centre is fun, holding together each increasingly ambitious set piece with plenty of betrayals and mask shenanigans. Speaking of those set pieces, they’re truly astonishing pieces of work built by people nearly as insane as Cruise. An early sequence, the HALO jump over Paris, was achieved through a single camera operator falling from 20,000 feet. This commitment lends Mission: Impossible – Fallout a tangibility that not many action films can claim, and it feels monumental; the crowning moment of the most consistently great action franchise.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is one hell of a ride. With three movies’ worth of climaxes in one, the film fills pretty much every minute with some death-defying set piece that Tom Cruise has roped Christopher McQuarrie into directing, which he does with a confident hand that builds on what he achieved with Rogue Nation. Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson and Henry Cavill play the standout characters, and work together to provide a truly thrilling experience and, for a franchise you’d expect to be wearing thin by now, a plot that delivers a surprising amount of twists and turns. See it on the biggest screen possible.

Hyperbole is the greatest failing of any critic. Thankfully, every drip and drop of praise for Mission: Impossible – Fallout is justified, deserved and factual. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have delivered us the film of the summer. Mad Max: Fury Road reset the potential of the blockbuster, with an artistic flair and madness never before seen; M:I 6 can be considered in the same class. A film that will redefine how future movies are made, this is exhilarating, bold, boundary-pushing filmmaking with a star and writer-director giving their everything for us. The bar has just been reset. Your move, everybody else.

Team Talk – Mission: Impossible – Fallout was last modified: July 30th, 2018 by Stephanie Watts